Page:The Development of Navies During the Last Half-Century.djvu/108

 of short duration, this class of ship has proved well suited.

The 'Dreadnought' was the next improvement. A slight increase in the thickness of the armour and weight of the armament involved an additional displacement of 1500 tons. There were also structural differences of some importance, which entailed extra weight. The armoured breastwork extended right across the ship, and was 186 ft. long, instead of 154 ft. in the 'Devastation.' A higher freeboard throughout was also given. She had four 38-ton guns, which, owing to improvements in ammunition, were considerably more effective than the 35-ton guns. With these modifications the 'Dreadnought' was, and is to this day, regarded as an excellent type of fighting ship. After a departure of some years, we again returned to the general principle of her construction in the 'Nile' and 'Trafalgar,' to which allusion will be made later on.

Though we had, without unduly increasing the size of the battle ship, passed from 4½ in. to 14 in. of protective armour, the power of the gun had more than kept pace, and it was evident that if armour capable of resisting the heaviest ordnance was applied to a ship the area covered by it must be contracted, or we should be compelled to resort to enormous ships. At that time it was considered undesirable to exceed 12,000 tons. Not only had the resistance of the structure to hostile shot to be considered, but the power to strike heavy blows in return was even more important. Artillerists were, with improved plant, constructing heavier guns than